MotoGP Editorial: Breakdown Bruno

By Michael Scott | 7/24/2013 8:46 AM

Bruno was busy at the Sachsenring. Bruno (according to a big nameplate behind the windshield) drove the breakdown truck, picking up broken motorcycles. Often as not, during the MotoGP sessions, he would have two bikes on the trailer at a time.

The crashes that mattered at the little German track – knocking out Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa – happened elsewhere, but the vast majority were at Turn 11, nicknamed “the Waterfall,” where paddock cognoscenti gather in numbers to watch. Because, being cognoscenti, they know they are going to see people fall off there, at high speed, and with some frequency.

The thrill, for the riders as well as watchers, is the challenge. Getting away with it, big-time. It’s one of those places where you can see easily who is trying hardest, who is bravest, and with tick-tock frequency which of them will do a bit too much of one or the other.

There were 61 crashes over the weekend, a disproportionate 20 of them in MotoGP, and six of those were at the Waterfall corner.

Prompting cries for something to be done.

Even louder were the cries to leave it alone. It is one of the most challenging and pulse-quickening corners of the year, most especially because of the speed – in sixth gear.

Scott has been covering MotoGP since long before it was MotoGP. Remember two-strokes? Scott does. He’s also a best-selling author of biographies on the lives of legendary racers such as Wayne Rainey and Barry Sheene.